Midday open thread

• Hoosier journalist Matt Tully offers the Democratic candidates 10 Simple Tips to Win Over Indiana Dems, including:

  Some issues are political losers, meaning you will anger at least as many voters as you please with any stance you take on them. So for starters, and for your own sake, avoid the following issues: the firing of Bobby Knight and daylight saving time.

• It may have been a tough week or so for the Democratic brand with the Spitzer scandal and presidential candidates scrapping, but it’s been an even worse couple of weeks for the Republicans, according to the Washington Post. There’s the loss in IL-14, the stolen funds at the NRCC, an inability to recruit candidates and the realization, as Republican Tom Davis notes, that Bush “just killed the Republican brand.”
• The Iraq war IS paying for itself with oil, after all! It’s just that’s it’s paying for the insurgent side of it, according to the New York Times.
• Attorney General Mukasey proclaims he’s personally opposed to using the death penalty against the 9/11 plotters, according to ABC.
• Iraq is so very safe these days that John McCain had to enter the country under cover of total secrecy.

  The details of his visit were not being released for security reasons. The trip was not announced, and he was believed to have been in the country for several hours before reporters were able to confirm his presence.

  - smintheus

• Where we might speak of John McCain talking out of both sides of his mouth, the LA Times more delicately describes how he has "adopted a surprising diversity of views on foreign policy issues" that "brings uncertainty" about what the heck he would do as president. - smintheus
• Sex-obsessed Sen. David Vitter successfully inserted an amendment into an Indian Health Services bill "that would permanently prohibit the use of federal dollars to fund abortions for Native Americans except in rare cases." - smintheus